Projects are taken on and sub-divided into subtasks:
- analysing user requirements
- designing and prototyping
- writing and testing
- acceptance testnig
- installing and testing
Each phase requires their own specific skills and matched to specific team members.
- Team leaders
- Developers
- System analysts
- Consultants
- Testing and Q&A
A project manager has to consider the following problems:
- Costing
- Team members and skills
- Planning and timescales
- Monitoring and feedback
6 comments:
Explain why projects are often subdivided into subtasks and performed by teams (6)
A firm is creating a team to plan, design and implement an IT project. Descrive four characteristics of a good IT project team (8)
A company has three departments to handle finance, buildings and equipment maintenance. Each department currently operates a seperate IT system. The company wishes to improve the efficiency of the operations by implementing a common corporate system across all three departments.
In order to achieve this improvement, the company has decided to select members of staff from each department to form a project team to plan, design and implement the new system.
a) Describe three corporate level factors the team should consider when planning the new system. (6)
b) At their first meeting the team decide to subdivide the project into a series of tasks. Describe two advantages of this approach (4)
Explain why projects are often subdivided into subtasks and performed by teams.
Answer:
(1) A software project is often too sophisticated to be developed by one person, so a team of people with different specialist skills is required.
(2) For example, a project may require initial requirement analysis, designing, coding, testing and end user training which all require a different type of skill.
(3) A team member may be good at interviewing and comprehension, so they will be used during the analysis phase.
(4) Another team member may have a talent for designing systems or thorough testing
(5) It is necessary to divide a project into subtasks so that every team member knows what they must do and when it must be completed by, in order for the project to be delivered on time. As tasks can be worked on concurrently, a project can be finished faster.
(6) Breaking down the project into subtasks makes it easier for the project manager to monitor progress and to ensure the project is on schedule.
A firm is creating a team to plan, design and implement an IT project. Describe four characteristics of a good IT project team.
Answer:
(1) Good communication
(2) A team must be able to communicate otherwise the progress of the project cannot be monitored and may go off schedule or not deliver what was required.
(3) Complimentary skills
(4) There are many parts to a software project; analysis, design, implementation, testing and end-user support. Each one of these parts requires different skills. No one person can be a specialist in all of the required skills so a team must contain team members with different specialist skills and together they can work together to make the project a success.
(5) Teamwork and co-operation
(6) There is no 'i' in 'Team' (but there is a 'me' thanks Mr Gillett). In order to be successful, a team needs to be able to respect each other, be able to critise and take critism, work in a professional manner and not to alienate co-workers.
(7) Good, consistent leadership
(8) A good leader will bring out the best in their team members. They will encourage co-operation, manage expectations, plan for contingencies, cost out budgets and monitor the project so that it is on schedule.
A company has three departments to handle finance, buildings and equipment maintenance. Each department currently operates a seperate IT system. The company wishes to improve the efficiency of the operations by implementing a common corporate system across all three departments.
In order to achieve this improvement, the company has decided to select members of staff from each department to form a project team to plan, design and implement the new system.
a) Describe three corporate level factors the team should consider when planning the new system. (6)
b) At their first meeting the team decide to subdivide the project into a series of tasks. Describe two advantages of this approach (4)
Answer:
(a)
(1) Costing
(2) New systems can cost a lot of money, they must deliver cost advantages/efficiencies to the client to justify the expense.
(3) Timescales
(4) The project must have a clear project plan and that plan stuck to. A project that goes over its alloted-time leads to added expense.
(5) Team members
(6) A project team must consist of complementary skills in order to meet the different challenges that a project produces.
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